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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face=Helvetica><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>A water giveaway</span></font></b><b><font
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bold'><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=date1><font size=1 color="#cc3333" face=Arial><!-- START WRITER CREDIT--><span
style='font-size:7.5pt'><!-- END HEADLINE/DECK & SUBHEADLINE/SUBDECK -->Monday,
December 13, 2004</span><!-- END WRITER CREDIT--></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>WHO OWNS <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s
water? That issue, which has shaped <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>'s
history, is at the heart of a legal battle that could gut implementation of the
Endangered Species Act in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
and place insurmountable hurdles in the state's ability to manage its water. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The controversy dates back to the extended <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>
drought in the early 1990s, when the federal government held back water from
two <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> irrigation districts to protect
the Chinook salmon and delta smelt populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>A private law firm, Marzulla & Marzulla, sued the
federal government on behalf of the irrigation districts -- which in turn
represent 285 growers in the area. The suit claimed that withholding the water
represented an illegal ''taking'' of property, prohibited by the U.S.
Constitution. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>In 2001, John Wiese, a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal
Claims in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Washington</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">D.C.</st1:State></st1:place>, ruled in the grower's favor. The
ruling effectively overturned decades of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
law. For years, it had been accepted that our water is owned by the people of <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>, and not by
those who have signed contracts to use it. ''You can acquire rights to use
water, but you can never acquire ownership of water in the same way you can a
piece of land, or an automobile,'' said Joseph Sax, a UC Berkeley Boalt Hall
School of Law professor who helped prepare a brief against the water districts'
claims. Wiese in effect ruled that the users of the water, through their local
water districts, owned the water. He ordered the federal government to pay the
growers $14 million in damages, which, with interest and attorneys' fees, has
grown to $26 million. ''This could have a devastating impact on regulating
water in the public interest in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>,''
Sax told us. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>But instead of appealing the case to a higher court -- which
the federal government typically does when it has to pay out large sums of
money - - the Bush administration is reportedly on the verge of reaching a
settlement with the growers, to the alarm of state officials. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>On Dec. 1, <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s
Water Resources Control Board, representing the Schwarzenegger administration,
urged the Bush administration to appeal Wiese's decision and to consider having
the case transferred to the California Supreme Court. In a letter to three Bush
cabinet secretaries, water board chairman Arthur Baggett Jr. wrote that Wiese's
ruling could ''fundamentally change the way water resources are managed in <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>.'' <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>State Attorney General Bill Lockyer has made a similar
request. Even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, charged with
managing the nation's fisheries, has urged the administration to appeal the
ruling, arguing that ''liability was wrongly decided.'' <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>All Californians should be concerned about the Justice Department's
apparent eagerness to go along with a flawed ruling in a single court that
could have a disastrous impact on the environment, as well as determine who
controls water in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
for decades to come.. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Urge Attorney General John Ashcroft to stand up for
taxpayers and the environment by appealing this ruling. E-mail him at <a
href="mailto:askdoj@usdoj.gov">askdoj@usdoj.gov</a>.</span></font><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=3 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Consultant, California Trout, Inc.</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><i><font
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color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
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<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><i><font
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color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810 ce</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
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face="Times New Roman"> (secondary)</font></i></em><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="http://www.fotr.org">http://www.fotr.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'><a href="http://www.caltrout.org">http://www.caltrout.org</a></span><o:p></o:p></font></i></p>
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